Iron Man: Revolution
by ImNotTonyStark
Summary: When a new threat emerges from within the heart of the Lower 48 United States, Tony Stark must reluctantly don his armor once again to stop a war from starting.
1. Back in Black

"Stress-free environment, huh?" Bruce glanced at Tony, rubbing his head.

Tony shrugged. "You're fine aren't you? Then quit complaining."

Bruce Banner smirked and stepped back to the computer, wiping his brow. He was thankful for the well-placed air conditioning vents in the rebuilt Stark Towers; the week had been more mentally and physically demanding than any project he'd taken on before. The New York summer air lay heavily on the streets, and it was good to be able to watch the squalor happen from two-hundred stories away. He nudged some papers aside on the smooth glass table top and reached for his soldiering iron, flipping a switch on one of the table's slender aluminum legs.

"I'm fine, but if you have a short like that in one of your servos during flight you won't be. It won't slap me in the face; it'll throw you into a building." Bruce removed one of the panels and set it on the table with a low metallic clank. "That _is_ a lot lighter."

Tony Stark nodded. "When am I ever wrong?"

"I'll ask Pepper,"

Tony wiped the satin black metal with a cloth, admiring their handiwork. "A nickel rhodium alloy was definitely the way to go instead of that old gold titanium fuselage. Should return a marginally smaller radar cross section, and it looks pretty neat too."

Bruce lifted the panel he had removed back in place. Tony clicked his tongue and pointed, and as robotic arms secured the plate of armor Bruce crossed his arms and leaned against the table. "You still haven't really told me why this is necessary. Why now; why do you still need one of these?"

Tony's mouth twisted slightly as he scoured his mind for the right words. "The truth is, _I _don't. Fury kept calling me about some new threat, and I just couldn't care less. I thought that after New York and Killian I qualified for retirement,"

"But with Fury, you're never retired," Bruce finished.

"That's apparently how he sees it." Tony threw a blueberry into his mouth.

Bruce pressed on. "Why you, though? No offense, but why couldn't S.H.I.E.L.D. handle this? Without your glow-in-the-dark pacemaker I would have thought Fury would call on Rogers or the Hawk."

"Apparently I'm the best qualified for the job. Besides, Barton's off in some foreign country on reconnaissance, and the Cap' is somewhere that Fury wouldn't disclose."

Bruce waited. He could tell there was something else.

Tony turned and twisted some virtual dials on the screen. "And I may or may not have gotten robbed," He paused. "I'll give you a hint; I did."

Bruce suddenly remembered. Stark Industries' main research facility in Malibu had been broken into by a group of heavily-armed and specially trained men. The security didn't stand a chance, and an EMP burst had disabled all of the main surveillance cameras, so only a single blurred frame displaying a partially armored figure was recovered. Digitally enhanced and color adjusted, the armor appeared to be another Iron Man impersonator, but this one was clearly more advanced. Witnesses say they saw the man fly through the roof of the facility carrying a mysterious crumpled lump of equipment. The lump was later identified to be the remnants of the partially destroyed Extremis suit, which had been on display in the lobby. Upon further analysis of the facility's system mainframe, it was discovered that a major portion of the J.A.R.V.I.S. script had been copied and stolen.

"Has S.H.I.E.L.D. located this guy?" He asked.

Tony scoffed. "They tried. But I've never been one to wait around for other people. I like to do my own stuff," He motioned to Bruce, who stepped over near the screen. "See that? A whole lot of weird deliveries are being made to that specific quadrant in the Colorado Rockies. That's what I really need this suit for; to get down there and see what's going on."

"When are you planning on going?" Bruce stepped towards a separate screen, swiping his hand to raise a holographic version of the suit.

"Tomorrow," Tony said, turning from the screen. "People have taken my stuff before, and a lot of innocents got hurt. I'm not going to stand around on hold while S.H.I.E.L.D. lets it happen again."

"Wake up, J.A.R.V.I.S. It's game day." Tony tapped the screen. "And I need to try on the new uniform." A cylindrical pillar in the middle of the room split and opened a chamber, revealing his latest creation. The floor panel he was standing on lifted and folded, enclosing his feet in satin black boots. The low light of the room glinted off of the angular plates, casting a gauzy glow on the floor. Robotic arms reached out and encased Tony's legs, and the circular glow at his chest returned as the torso armor was secured shut. A smaller, more lightweight arc reactor was now housed within the chest armor. More mechanical extremities hovered over the armor, securing plates and piecing the suit together. All of the incendiary weapons such as the smart missiles had been removed. To compensate, the repulsors had been uprated to operate substantially more efficiently and now had multiple combat functions.

Bruce stepped back, a satisfied grin across his face. This was actually going to work. Everything happened effortlessly, flawlessly, and exactly according to plan. Tony stepped away from the robotic apparatus in the pillar, the final pieces of the suit clicking as they closed. The face of the helmet dropped with a low clank, and the eyes lit up.

"I'll be on radio," Bruce said.

With a high-pitched metallic scrape, vents on the greaves sprung open. "I'll be listening." Tony said. The foot repulsors ignited, exhaust gases shooting from the vents. Ports in the ceiling quickly opened and Tony lifted off into the early morning sky.


	2. That Makes Two of Us

"How does it feel? To be back?" Bruce's voice came over the radio.

"Better than I expected." Tony said. He hadn't planned to be in this situation; the entire Clean Slate protocol was turned on its head, and he hoped this threat could be suppressed and eliminated quickly and cleanly. "At least this suit isn't as much of a choking hazard as the Mk 42 was. Less parts, less problems."

J.A.R.V.I.S.'s voice suddenly interrupted. "Sir, I recommend Stealth Mode for the descent. The base is heavily fortified, and I have been picking up radar signals."

"Can anything see us?" Tony asked, looking down at the landscape, still dark in the dawn light.

The HUD flashed in the lower right corner as diagnostic information was displayed. "All signals so far have been intermittent and broken up by the fuselage's radar-absorbent paint." J.A.R.V.I.S. reported.

"Told you," Bruce said with a half-smile.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright, J. Activate pulse-jets, deploy Smart Flaps, make me disappear." The glow from the arc reactor was suddenly gone as plates of metal closed the opening, and the light from the helmet's eyeholes dimmed. The suit's boot thrusters went into a lower state of power and vents closed on the sides of the greaves. The thrusters ignited in short bursts only when necessary, and smart flaps around the armor opened to maximize aerodynamic performance, maintaining flight.

A red light suddenly began flashing in the communications bar of the HUD. "Forgive me, sir, but Director Fury appears to be overriding my protocols. I will attempt to…" J.A.R.I.V.S. was suddenly cut off, and Nick Fury's serious baritone sounded.

"Stark, you shut that suit down and leave the area immediately." He commanded.

"Yeah, well if I shut it down, how will I be able to leave?" Tony stalled.

"That was an order," Fury continued. "Go home. This situation is under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s control. If and when we need heavier firepower, we'll call you."

Suddenly, the base rose out of the dawn mist. A break in the clouds revealed a heavily walled area in a valley with large guard towers. Tall mountains circled the compound, preventing sunlight from penetrating the walls. The courtyard was teeming with people, and an abundance of vehicles were parked on the sides. Dark, angular, experimental tanks could be seen in a large hangar, and one particularly suspicious building was set far back from the main gates, which were guarded by two massive battlements with three barrels glaring out of the front.

Fury grew impatient. "Stark, this is non-negotiable. Draw back. This new threat is more powerful than you know. He is to be considered heavily armed and extremely dangerous."

"That makes two of us." Tony said in a low voice, and shut off his communications.

Birds and squirrels scattered from the dull metallic thud as Tony landed a few hundred yards from the base. Warm shafts of light pierced through the trees as the sun crawled away from its slumber behind the mountains. The base loomed in the distance, still enveloped in darkness. Tony crouched behind a boulder.

"I'm picking up a high concentration of energy inside the hangar," J.A.R.V.I.S. observed. "Shall I get Doctor Banner back online?"

At that moment, a white hot beam of energy suddenly expelled from the hangar, ripping across the valley. Trees and bushes were incinerated and the air superheated as the burst sped towards Tony. Barely having time to gasp or curse, he was thrown backwards as the boulder in front of him exploded. He crashed through a tree and landed on his side, scrabbling at the ground and trying to reorient himself.

"What in the…?" He muttered, standing. The bright blue symbols on the heads up display vanished as they were replaced with red icons, targeting reticles and combat vector icons.

"Assailant unidentified; it appears to have an almost invisible radar cross section. I can only track it by the energy it gives off," J. .I.S. stated. "The fuselage is intact. No substantial damage sustained."

Tony narrowed his eyes and the display zoomed in to the hangar. An armored figure was flying towards him at incredible velocity. Tony whipped his right hand upwards and vents opened on the gauntlet. As he fired the repulsor, gases escaped through the vents, reducing the backlash of the much more powerful repulsors.

"Sir…" J.A.R.V.I.S. began.

The armored figure suddenly fired its own repulsors to the side, quickly rolling to the left in midair and evading the blast. The man landed in front of Tony and swung upwards with a powerful fist clad in a deep red metal. Tony leaned back to dodge the punch and grabbed the man's arm as it passed his face. He raised his hand and fired a repulsor blast at the figure, who staggered backwards as the arm flew out of Tony's grasp.

Deep, metallic cackling erupted from inside the helmet, which slowly turned back towards Tony. Streaks on the helmet, glowing red hot from the repulsor blast, raced across the smooth and angular metal. The eye slits were thin and emitted a dim red luminescence. Two rectangular panels covered the nose and mouth area, converging at a wedge in the center. Tony could make out words printed on the chest of the armor: Crimson Dynamo Mk VI. A low, raspy snarl spoke.

"Welcome back, Man of Iron." The figure took one step forward. Prongs on the boots shot into the ground with a deep thud, and he brought his hands in front of him. Tony raised his hand and a powerful blast shot from the repulsor. Plates on the Crimson Dynamo's gauntlet armor lifted and slid forward, forming a wedge protecting the hands. The tip of the wedge burned bright with electricity, and as Tony's blast impacted the armor, it simply was cleaved into two separate beams which curved around the figure's body harmlessly.

"Tony!" Bruce's voice suddenly came on. "Fury was right! Don't attack that guy!"

"What?" Confusion turned to panic rising in Tony's chest.

"Get out of there, now!" Bruce roared.

The armored figure withdrew the boot stakes from the ground, and a low hum followed by a high-pitched whine was heard as bright red light suddenly flared from a disc on the right gauntlet. Energy surged from the disc to the hand repulsor and exploded towards Tony, throwing him backwards and he slammed into a rock face. The Crimson Dynamo walked forward slowly, kicking a large fallen log aside as if it were a tin can.

Tony's HUD flickered and glitched slightly as he fell to the ground, and the servos seized up for a heartbeat before activating again as he tried to stand. Damage information scrolled frenziedly across the interface and the radio contact with Banner had been lost.

"J.A.R.V.I.S.," He groaned and stood shakily. "Divert all auxiliary power to the thrusters…"

The Dynamo suddenly grabbed Tony's helmeted head with one hand and threw him to the side. He jumped up, spun, and kicked Tony in the back. At the same time, the boot repulsor ignited, firing directly into Tony's armor. The metal caved slightly as he tumbled across the ground. Tony grabbed dirt and slammed his feet down, skidding to a stop several dozen yards away.

The Dynamo landed in front of Tony. A metallic scrape rang out as two slim pieces of the right gauntlet sprung forward. The blades were lit up with electricity drawn from the gauntlet reactor. As he walked forward, he said in a low growl, "This ends now."


End file.
